BRANDON
Nathan didn’t leave his apartment all night. No one went in, and no one came out. Even while the members partied it up in the lounge, he never showed his face. If he had some big plan on how to accomplish his little task, he wasn’t sharing it with the rest of us.
A little after dawn, I headed back to my room, fully expecting to see Shark’s ass snoring away. I didn’t expect to find him pacing up and down my room, wearing out the carpet.
“What’s crawled up your ass?” I asked, shutting the door. Moans from the next room over came through the walls. Remembering the last time I had my hands on Hannah came to mind. Only a few days past, but still too fucking many. “What’s wrong?” I said again with more grit. I was fucking tired from staring at Nathan’s door all night, and I wasn’t in the mood for more cryptic shit. Not even from Shark.
“Lacy called.” He stopped pacing and glared at me. Not his usual ugly mug. No, he looked ready to rip someone to shreds. “There was trouble up at the cottage yesterday. The girls are headed back this way. Should be here within a few hours.”
“What?” I dug out my phone. Nothing. “Hannah didn’t call me.”
“She was too busy trying to bury Hunter!” he practically yelled.
I wiped my hands over my eyes. “What the fuck are you talking about? Start at the beginning, dammit.”
“Lacy was showing Hannah how to handle a gun—”
“Wait. What?” I had to be hearing shit.
“You heard me, don’t get sidetracked on that, just fucking listen. She took her into the woods for target practice. On the first shot, she bagged herself a Soldier.” The fucker almost sounded proud.
“I swear to god, Shark. I’m ready to rip your fucking head off, what do you mean?”
“Hunter was there, found them. When she took her shot, she missed the tree but nailed him right in the stomach. Bled out under a pine tree.”
I sat down. I needed to sit. Hannah shot someone? Picturing her with a gun in her hand put a twist in my stomach. “She killed him?”
“Yeah. Before he croaked, he said Nathan let Carter know where the girls were. Said Nathan knew she didn’t have family down south.”
I raised my brows at him and he waved me off. “I know. I forgot Nathan’s known her longer than I have. Of course he would know.”
“What the fuck is he playing at? If he wants Martin to take over for Carter, why give up Hannah? What does she have to do with anything?”
“I figure she’s his way of controlling you. If Carter has Hannah, you’d have to help Nathan get Martin in the chair, and Nathan would help you get Hannah back.”
“He’s insane. I already said I’d help.”
“I don’t know. All I know is that fuck sent a lunatic after my wife. If Hannah hadn’t asked Lacy to show her how to shoot, they would have just been in the cottage painting their nails.” He ran his hand over his smooth head, back and forth, back and forth, letting loose a deep growl. I knew what he was feeling. Pent up.
“They are on the road?”
“Should be. I talked with Lacy a little bit ago. They found his bike down the road; she's gonna drive them back.”
“How long has it been since Lacy’s handled a bike?” I asked, knowing there wasn’t much choice.
“I let her ride my bike now and then.” He looked away from me.
“When you’re drunk,” I scoffed.
“Yeah, well, we don’t live five steps from the bar like you,” he shot at me. “She rode last week. Did fine. They’ll be fine.” He sat on the bed, holding his head with both hands. Someone so confident shouldn’t look so scared.
“Yeah, they’ll be fine. Did you say Hannah asked to learn how to shoot?”
He looked up at me and laughed. “Yeah. Lacy said she tried talking her out of it, but she kept on about it. Guess your little girl is all grown up.”
“Don’t talk like that, that’s gross.” I screwed up my face. Little girl. That woman was many things to me, but little girl wasn’t one of them. Every inch of her attested to her womanhood.
“Gross?” He laughed. “What about Nathan?”
“Nothing. No one in or out all night. If we have a few hours, I need to catch a few minutes of sleep. Get out.” I shoved him off the bed and jumped on, kicking off my boots.
“I told Lacy to meet me at home—”
“No. Carter could have someone there. I’ll tell Hannah to meet at our usual spot.” Typing a few directions to her to go along with the change of meet up, I tucked the phone back in my back pocket. “Now go. Give me an hour.”
“How we gonna get out of here? Nathan locked down the place.”
“The women and kids are locked, you asshat.” I turned over, giving him my back. “We’ll be fine. One hour.”
I heard the door click behind him and closed my eyes. Just a minute of sleep.